In Which
by bungaMawar001
Summary: It was one of those dreams again. He hated those dreams. They never made sense. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered him so much, but for the past few months he's been seeing the exact same thing in vivid detail, a giant monster stripping the world down to bedrock, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. i.e. author has had plot bunnies swimming in her head and tries to story
1. The Author Tries to Start a Story

_Nothing built can last forever_

_And every legend_

_No matter how great_

_Fades with time._

_With each passing year_

_More and more details are lost_

_Until all that remains are myths,_

_Half-truths,_

_To put it simply: lies._

_And yet,_

_In all the known universe_

_Between here and the Far Lands_

_The legend of the Order of the Stone endures,_

_Unabridged_

_As self-evident fact._

_Indeed,_

_It is only a troubled land that has a need for heroes_

_And ours was fortunate to have,_

_So long ago,_

_Four heroes such as these:_

_**Gabriel the Warrior**_

_Before whose sword all combatants would tremble_

_**Ellegard the Redstone Engineer**_

_Whose machines would spark a new era of invention_

_**Magnus the Rogue**_

_Who would channel his destructive creativity for the good of all_

_**And Soren the Architect**_

_Builder of Worlds_

_And the leader of the Order of the Stone._

_These four friends together_

_Would give so much to gain their rightful place_

_As four heroes._

_Their greatest quest_

_Would take them on a dangerous journey_

_To fight a mysterious creature_

_Known as the Ender Dragon._

_In the end, the Order of the Stone emerged victorious_

_And the dragon was defeated._

_Their story complete,_

_They slipped away into the pages of legend._

_._

_._

_._

_But when one story ends_

_._

_._

_._

_Another begins_

Thunk.

'_Focus.'_

Thunk.

'_Don't think about it.'_

Thump_._

'_Just focus, dang it!'_

Jesse let out a frustrated sigh and paused to take a breather. He stared at the armor stand he'd been beating up for the past half hour or so and contemplated on what had gotten him into this sorry state in the first place.

'_It was one of _those _dreams again.'_

Letting out another sigh, he leaned on his wooden sword and lowered his head. He could feel Reuben's concern from his little pink aura, which was comforting really, but he just needed this moment to himself.

He hated those dreams.

They never made sense.

Almost every single time, it'd show him vivid scenes of unfamiliar places and people in a span of no more than two seconds at least. Occasionally, he'd see himself in some place or fighting something alongside some people he thinks are his friends, but they're too fuzzy to make out in his dream.

Other times, the dreams would go to a whole different direction. They'd show him when he was younger and not jumping from group home to group home just yet, but he could never make out where he was and who the people around him were. Only very vague shapes and colors from the silhouettes of the people around him. Nonetheless, those dreams were his favorites. His favorite that is, until _something_ appears and that was when the screaming and feelings of fear start before he wakes up.

So, yeah. They were his favorite dreams and at the same time they were his worst nightmares.

Normally, it wouldn't have bothered him so much, but for the past few months, he's been seeing them more often and in more detail. And all of them had been the exact same thing, a giant monster stripping the world down to bedrock, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.

The image had been getting more and more vivid and he could've sworn he heard something this time. A multitude of voices jumbling up together and making his head spin.

Shaking his head, Jesse picked up his sword and started his series of attacks on the armor stand again.

'_Last night's dream wasn't anything special,'_ he told himself. '_I was just stressed out thinking about the building competition this time, that's all.'_

Satisfied with his reasoning for the time being, he focused all his attention on to the sword in his hand and the armor stand that-has-definitely-seen-better-days.

But he still couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to it.

Thunk. Thunk. Thump.

Reuben was excitedly running around in circles around him, occasionally butting his head on the training dummy.

Thunk. Thunk. Thump.

Olivia's focus on her little project was starting to dwindle as she begins to add in final touches to… whatever it was she was making.

Thunk. Thunk. Thump.

Axel was nearly home from his little errand in town to get the fireworks. It also seemed like his aura was full of… mischief?

'_I wonder what he's up to now.'_

Thunk. Thunk. Thump.

"Would you rather fight a hundred chicken-sized zombies or ten zombie-sized chickens?"

Jesse paused for a second to process the question before continuing on with his attacks.

Thunk. Thunk. Thump.

"Just to clarify, you'd have no armor or weapons, so you'd have to fight them with your hands."

Thunk. Thunk. Thump.

This was an easy one.

"I'd have to go with the giant chickens. Not because I want to or because I think it'll be easy, but because they'll be an abomination."

Olivia smirked, aura flickering with amusement, "Just imagine their giant feet."

Jesse grinned at her, "Like I said, an abomination."

Thunk. Thunk. Thump.

Olivia's focus was dwindling even more now. She must be finished with whatever that is.

"So, I've got a daylight sensor on the roof."

'_Is that what she's been working on?'_

"Mm-hm."

Thunk. Thunk. Thump.

"And if I did this right, these lamps should turn on once it gets dark."

'_Do we really need one though?'_

"Mm-hmm."

Thunk. .

"I just didn't want to leave Reuben here with nothing while we go off to the building competition."

Thunk. Thunk. Thump.

Jesse swung one last time and lowered his sword to the ground to turn to look at Olivia with questioning grey eyes.

"He's coming with us."

Surprise leaked into her aura, but also something akin to resignation, like she was expecting that answer. She turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Really?"

Reuben stopped head-butting the armor stand and looked up at Jesse as if he could tell that he was being talked about.

(For all he knew, Reuben actually could understand them, he's always been a very peculiar pig. Then again, Jesse was a pretty peculiar human himself.)

Jesse looked back up at Olivia.

"What kind of question is that?" He asked as he put away his sword. "Of course he's coming."

She raised her hands up in surrender.

"I'm not saying he shouldn't come." Reuben gave out a doubtful snort, "I'm not!"

He seemed to narrow his eyes at her before giving out another annoyed oink and turning towards the window as his aura turned a darker pink with doubt and offence.

(Jesse has always been bewildered at how strong Reuben's emotions were. He didn't know any other animal that had an aura as lively and human-like than his. Ever since he'd found him in the woods, he's always wondered if it was a coincidence that they were both different from the rest of their population.)

Olivia sighed, and her aura started to feel much heavier with exhaustion.

"But don't you think it's strange that you bring him with you everywhere you go?"

She looked over to where Reuben had seated himself on the chest near the window.

"He kinda makes us look like… I don't know," She hesitated, "... amateurs."

"He's my wingman," Jesse insisted, and then, just to try to get her to cheer up a little, "People always want to talk about the guy with the pig."

He grinned at her and Reuben gave out a happy oink, but her aura didn't lighten up by much.

"You mean talk _about_ the guy with the pig," she said, with a hint of annoyance, "Like, 'Oh! Look at the weird guy with the weird pig! How weird!'"

She looked like she was suppressing another sigh, "Look, I didn't mean anything by it. I'm glad he's coming."

Her aura started to get heavier as she turned around and walked back to the crafting area of their treehouse.

"I just don't want to give people another reason to call us 'losers'."

"We're not losers Olivia."

She turned around to face him as her aura's pulse quickened with frustration.

"We lose all the time! It's what we do!"

Jesse winced, it's not like she was wrong.

Olivia didn't bother to hide her sigh this time, "I can't remember the last time we won anything."

"Okay, okay. You're right," he noticed that her aura was still kinda down, "But in that case, it just means that we win at being losers."

Reuben did his little piggy grin and oinked in agreement.

Olivia chuckled, and her aura finally lightened up a little bit. Not as much as Jesse would have liked, but it's progress.

"All right, fine." She said.

All of a sudden, a hissing noise cut through from the trapdoor below them. Olivia's eyes widened with alarm.

"Oh no. Jesse?!"

He kneeled in front of the trapdoor and inspected it for a moment. Having sensed the presence way before it got here, Jesse wasn't really worried about what was to come. Olivia, on the other hand, had no idea what Axel had been planning on the way home (to be honest, Jesse also doesn't know his exact plans, but at least now he knows why he was getting mischievous earlier).

Oh well. A little prank never hurt anyone.

"Brace yourselves," Jesse said as he backed up a little bit.

Olivia's aura went brighter with suspicion at the lack of his reaction, but before she could do anything else, a creeper head suddenly burst out of the trapdoor right where Jesse's head used to be.

"Boo!"

Jesse was kinda ashamed to admit that he had jumped at least 2 blocks in the air at seeing that creeper head but to be fair, Axel's loud voice would've been enough to make even Gabriel the Warrior jump.

Olivia and Reuben weren't faring any better than he was. Reuben fell off the chest with a loud squeal and tumbled (un)gracefully to the floor, while Olivia let out a shriek and fell on her backside. At this point, everyone's emotions were all over the place and Jesse realized that he was starting to have trouble separating his emotions with the others' for a moment. Luckily, the moment passed and Axel let out a big laugh while taking his creeper head off.

"Aw man, you guys totally freaked out!" He managed to get out in between his laughter, "That was awe- oof!"

Reuben had had enough apparently, and headbutted Axel in the stomach, his dark pink aura still rushing with receding panic and annoyance.

Olivia picked herself up from the floor and trained her glare on the interrupting party, "Axel! What is the matter with you!?"

"Great," he groaned, ignoring Olivia's question, "Now I'm gonna smell like a pig at Endercon. I thought we were buddies!"

Jesse let out a chuckle as he regained his composure from the earlier scare.

"Cool mask, Axel."

Olivia's aura seemed to shift and then all of a sudden, her glare was directed to him. Jesse grinned sheepishly at her.

"Really, Jesse?" Olivia deadpanned.

He raised his hands up in surrender, "Hey, I didn't know he had a creeper mask on him!" He turned back to Axel. "It's very convincing, by the way."

Axel grinned back at him, "I know right?" He let out another laugh, "The looks on your faces…"

Olivia just shook her head as her aura started pulsing normally again.

"You did bring the fireworks though, right?" She asked.

Axel's green aura flared with excitement and pride, "Of course I did, and I even brought something for the little guy."

He reached into his inventory and pulled out a pig-sized Ender dragon costume. Olivia looked at it skeptically.

"You brought Reuben a disguise?" She asked.

"Uh, we're going to a convention?" Axel replied like it was obvious, "_Sombody's_ gotta wear a costume."

He plopped the costume on the equally excited pig and Reuben started running around the room and squealing with joy. Jesse let out a short laugh of amusement.

"He looks awesome!"

Axel grinned back at him, his aura glowing brighter at the praise, "It only took me a million hours to build."

"All right, all right," Jesse said as he turned towards the trapdoor where Olivia was already halfway through.

"You definitely brought the fireworks right?" She asked.

"Yes, I'm ready," Axel insisted, his aura growing more active with excitement, "Waiting on you guys."

Aura also pulsing with excitement (but more composed), Olivia looked over at Reuben, who had settled down on a bookcase near the window and looked like he was proudly showing off his new costume.

Looking up at Jesse, she grinned, "See, _now_ he's your wingman."

"Stop!" He threw glare at Olivia that didn't really have any heat into it and purposefully projected his amusement throughout the room.

Axel started towards the trapdoor and Jesse noticed that his aura had gotten even more excited and impatient.

"Hurry up and grab your stuff," He urged.

"Yeah," Olivia agreed, "We'll meet you downstairs, okay?"

"Okay," They both went down the ladder and he felt them stop to wait for him at the bottom of the tree.

"Alright, let's see," Jesse muttered to himself as he searched inside the chest Rueben had been sitting on earlier, "Shears. Definitely taking these. Never know when I might need to shear some sheep."

As he closed the chest, the poster of Gabriel hanging on the wall caught his eye and he walked over to it.

"Gabriel the Warrior," He kept his gaze on the poster as he addressed Reuben. "You think we'll ever get that famous?"

He felt Reuben's aura flicker with a shadow of doubt.

"Well, it's not impossible," Jesse argued. "Maybe I'll get famous for my sweet poster collection."

He moved on to the other chest in the room and started to shuffle through the contents until he got what he was looking for.

"Flint and steel, not too shabby," He muttered to himself.

He closed the chest and looked around the room for anything he missed. His armor stand/training dummy caught his attention, so he went up to it and inspected it for a little bit.

"I got this as a gift once, but I don't have any armor to put on it," Jesse sighed. "Maybe someday."

He gave it one last look-over and then lightly punched it once just for the heck of it.

Grinning, he looked down at Reuben and knelt in front of him.

"Give me a dragon roar, Reuben."

With determination flickering in his aura, Reuben lifted his head up and gave out a loud squeal that was perhaps the closest to what a pig could get to an actual dragon roar. Jesse nodded in approval.

"That'll do Reuben," He said as he stood up. "That'll do."

With that, he tucked Reuben under his arm and made his way down the ladder where Axel and Olivia were waiting for him on the ground.

"That's everything," Olivia announced as Jesse put Reuben down.

"Let's roll," Axel said.

Olivia just rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, "Yeah dude, roll."

Jesse noted that Axel's aura was burning so bright with excitement, it was getting kinda dizzying to look at. He turned away from it before he could accidentally blind himself from the brightness of it (is that even possible?).

"Let's go, guys," He called out as he turned towards the town.

They started down the road and when Jesse glanced at Axel again, his aura had apparently gotten even brighter in a span of a couple of seconds with his excitement (again, is that even possible?). His own curiosity bubbling up inside of him, he decided that now is probably a good time as any to ask. But before he could say anything, Axel cut him to the chase.

"Y'know, I heard a pretty juicy rumor about the building competition, but you guys gotta promise not to say anything." He started.

Jesse still stood on what he had thought before, he was almost literally getting blinded by how bright Axel's aura was.

"So that's why you were so excited this afternoon?" He asked.

Axel's eyes widened as his excitement cooled down and was replaced by a much calmer realization.

"Oh yeah. You would've felt it earlier," Axel grinned at him. "So, have you figured it out yet, Mr. Psychic?"

"Hey," Jesse laughed out. "I'm an empath, not a mind-reader."

Axel just shrugged, "Same difference."

"So what's this juicy rumor about, Axel?" Olivia's own aura was pulsing with curiosity.

"Alright," His aura was starting to regain some of that excitement. "First off, it's in two parts, each part more exciting than the last."

Between feeling Olivia's curiosity and Axel's excitement, Jesse could barely keep his own interest at bay.

"Spit it out, Axel." He said.

"Part one, the special guest for this year's Endercon is none other than Gabriel the Warrior him-freaking-self!" Axel's grin was about enough to split his face in two.

"Whoa!" Jesse exclaimed, he hadn't been expecting _that_. "What's the second part?"

"Part two. According to my sources, the winner of this year's building competition gets to meet him!"

Olivia gasped, her aura had also started pulsing rapidly with excitement that could rival Axel's.

"I mean, it doesn't really mean anything if we lose." Axel continued. "But if we win… oh man, this would make up for all the losing."

"Meeting Gabriel would be a dream and an honor." Jesse said, trying to take control of his emotions that were going crazy with excitement at the moment.

'_Take deep breaths, just calm down for a minute.'_ He managed to tone down his excitement to a reasonable level just in time to hear Olivia talking.

"-esome. It'd be amazing to meet him." She said, her excitement was also starting to recede, even if there was still some left.

Axel's aura, on the other hand, was still burning as bright as when they had left the tree house, "Reuben better be careful in that costume," he joked. "Last time Gabriel saw an Ender Dragon, it didn't End well."

He grinned at his friends, waiting for the pun to register, but Olivia took a quick look around them and her aura started to pulse from excited to skeptical once more.

"Sooo," She started. "Does this 'source' of yours make posters for a living…?"

"Huh?" Axel and Jesse followed her gaze towards the trees where they could see a whole bunch of Endercon posters about the keynote being sold out.

"Oh, yeah…" Axel's aura started to dim a little bit more as the excitement slowly got replaced by sheepishness. "My source, uhh, doesn't exist. You guys are my only friends."

"Guys, let's stay focused. We've got a competition to win." Jesse called out, determined to keep up the good spirits. Unfortunately, Olivia's excitement from earlier had started to drop again and it was slowly replaced by uncertainty once more.

"We never win," Olivia countered. "And this year we've got Reuben with us."

They looked down at the pig as he gave a questioning snort. Olivia shook her head, "We basically have no chance."

Jesse glanced at her, "We're going to win. Because-"

"What are you talking about?" Olivia asked him, he could feel her aura pulsing more deeply and slowly with doubt and frustration.

"Because, up until now, we've _hated_ losing," he continued, attempting to project some of his confidence into his friends. "But today, today my friends, we're going to learn how to love winning."

They all paused for a second before Jesse sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"That… didn't sound as good as it did in my head." he admitted.

"No, no. I'm with that." Axel grinned, his aura was still burning with excitement and a newfound determination.

Jesse grinned at Olivia and gave her an expectant look.

She looked at the boys for a moment before her aura shifted and she let out a sigh.

"All right," she said before returning their grins. Her aura still had some doubt in it, but like before, it was progress.

They continued walking, but they didn't get too far before Jesse's eyes widened as a thought hit him.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," He paused in his step and Olivia and Axel looked back at him expectantly.

"We're thinking about this all wrong," he went on, getting more excited. "The point of the building competition isn't just to build something. You have to do something to get noticed by the judges!"

Olivia and Axel's auras lightened up at that.

"Okay, so how do we do this?" Olivia asked.

Jesse gave them an ear-splitting grin, "We don't just build something functional. We build something fun." He explained, tapping his chin. "After we build that fireworks machine like we planned, we build something cool on top of it."

Olivia hummed, "You might be on to something."

"If you want to get a reaction out of the judges, you build something scary," Axel pointed out. "So I say we build a creeper."

"Wouldn't an enderman be better?" Olivia interjeted. "I'm more scared of enderman than creepers."

"They both have their moments," Axel said thoughtfully. "Both are pretty scary."

"Alright," They both looked at Jesse. "Let's build an enderman."

Olivia grinned, aura pulsing brighter by the moment while Axel's had a tint of disappointment in it.

"Aww, Olivia's thing?" Axel whined.

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Are you whining?"

"Nooo…" He quickly denied. "I was saying 'Awwesome'."

"Y'know," Olivia said, looking back at Jesse. "I think this is the first time we've decided on something _before_ we got to the competition. Think we got everything we need?"

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to grab a little more." he replied.

Axel grinned at both of them, "Let's get grabbin' then."

"We're so prepared," Jesse said, stepping forward. "We can't lose. _Cannot_."

Aura swirling with determination, he stuck his hand out, "Bring it in."

Sharing his enthusiasm, Axel, Olivia and Reuben stepped forward and placed their hands (or, y'know… hooves) on top of his. Jesse looked around at them and realized that he was starting to unconsciously project his determination again.

"Okay, 'Dare to Prepare' on three. No, no, no. 'Preparing is daring'. Nope, that's the same thing." He felt Axel and Olivia's auras dim just a little bit from confusion. "Forget it," he decided. "'Team', on three. One, two, three!"

They fist-bumped into the air and shouted, "Team!"

(Jesse and Olivia did anyway, Reuben gave his own little squeal and he must've confused Axel quite a bit because he ended up saying 'Prepare'.)

With determined looks on their faces, they all ran off to their own separate directions to get more materials.

The next two hours featured Jesse running around the surrounding area and gathering as much material as he possibly could. He mined stone, dug up sand, punched trees, sheared sheep (those shears did come in handy after all), and wrestled squids. Reuben also tried to help him get ready for the competition by making him do push ups and sit ups (how he managed to communicate that, Jesse still didn't know, but he supposes he was just amusing the little piggy at this point).

'_We're gonna win this time,'_ he thought to himself. '_I just know it.'_

* * *

Like the title says, the author tries to make a story. (Or start a story, whatever)

first story, (probably) don't know what im doing

pls be nice?

01/19/2020 EDIT: couple of minor things.

~peace out~


	2. The Team Get A Team Name

They met back up at their meeting spot a couple hours later grinning with wide grins and hopeful auras. Without needing to say anything, they all put their fists together and fist-bumped into the air again.

They stood there laughing for a second before continuing on their way to the building competition. On the way there, Olivia and Axel were talking to each other about how ready they were for this year's competition with their auras calmly swirling with anticipation and confidence.

Jesse smiled at seeing everyone's auras so light before the competition. Even Olivia had gotten out of her dark place from this morning. It seems like things are looking up for them.

Suddenly, a man with not-so-good intent suddenly entered his current range and jeered at them, "Nice pig, losers."

Or maybe not.

The group came to an abrupt halt. As Olivia glared daggers at the man's back, Jesse closed his eyes and sighed as he attempted to take control of his increasing frustration.

'_Deep breaths. Don't think about them. Keep it in.'_

After taking a moment, he looked over to Olivia who was still trying to bore holes into the man's back even if he was already long gone.

"Oh great," Jesse felt Axel's aura turn darker with anger as he followed his gaze.

"It's Lukas and the Ocelots," Axel continued to glare at them. "The rivalry continues."

Jesse sighed in irritation. And just as everything was going so well…

"Man," Olivia seemed to have noticed them as well. Her aura pulsed slowly in a disappointed rhythm. "They've got matching leather jackets and everything."

Axel just huffed.

As his friends were busy glaring at their 'rivals', Jesse realized that Aiden's aura was starting to shift its attention to them. He carefully poked at his friends' auras to get their attention away from the other group.

"C'mon guys," He called out (he hated how he sounded a bit desperate) and turned away from the Ocelots.

Unfortunately, they had already captured Aiden's attention. He smirked when he saw them.

"Well, well, well," The arrogance and mockery in Aiden's yellow-green aura was almost enough to make Jesse sick. Instead, he turned back to give them his best glare.

"If it isn't the Order of the Losers." Aiden continued.

'_Don't let him get to you,'_ Jesse took a deep breath in.

"Great, the fail squad's here," Maya's aura wasn't as bad as Aiden's but that didn't mean it was any better.

'_Their words don't mean anything,'_ He breathed out.

"Hey Lukas," Gill's aura was the only one that was bearable out of the three. "Get a load of these losers!"

Jesse's anger was starting to shimmer just around the edges of his conscience, '_Keep it in.'_

Lukas looked behind him from where he was talking to the reception lady and barely gave them a second's glance, "Let's go guys."

Jesse could feel a smidge of disappointment in his aura that was directed towards the rest of the Ocelots before they started walking away. He could still feel Aiden's sick amusement, but at least it wasn't as bad as before.

He sighed and rubbed the side of his head. It was hard being an empath sometimes.

"You okay, Jesse?" Olivia asked him.

Jesse looked back at her and felt Axel's concern growing as well.

"Yeah, I'm good," He looked at where the Ocelots had set up their booth. "It's just that… Aiden's aura makes me sick sometimes."

Axel starts walking ahead, still concerned, but more of his excitement was beginning to rise (and he probably wanted to forget about that little encounter anyway), "Alright, if you're good then let's get on with this."

They stopped in front of the reception desk and the lady behind it smiled professionally at them, "Name, please?"

Axel grinned at her, "Axel, and how do you do?"

The lady's aura remained unamused and it clearly showed on her expression as she replied, "No, I meant your team name."

Jesse felt all of their auras flare in surprise and confusion.

'_They didn't do this last year," _Jesse thought.

"Team name?" Axel whispered to Olivia, their auras started to get more nervous by the second. "We are so not ready for this."

Olivia nervously mumbled, "So much for losing anonymously."

Jesse scrambled through his brain for something, _anything_ that would count as a good team name.

'_Nether Maniacs? Ugh, no. We've never even _been _to the nether. Order of the Pig? No, that sounds… lame. How do I even come up with these things?! C'mon Jesse, think. Dead Enders?' _He pondered on that for a second. '_That could work… Oh shoot! They're waiting for me to answer, aren't they? Alright..."_

"We're… uhh… the Order of the Builders." When those words left his mouth, Jesse didn't know whether to slap himself or give himself a mental pat on the back. On one hand, it's still a bit… lame. But on the other hand, it's better than Nether Maniacs or the Order of the Pig… but Dead Enders would've been cool.

Olivia raised an eyebrow at him, "Well, it could've been worse."

He could feel her nervousness fading away though, so maybe it really wasn't too bad.

Axel grinned down at them, "I kinda like it."

Behind them, Reuben gave a small squeal of agreement.

"Okay, Order of the Builders," The lady at the desk looked down at her registry and wrote something down. "You guys are in booth 5."

Jesse thanked her and turned to follow the rest of his friends in the direction she pointed out. He looked over just in time to see Axel get himself stuck in the gate due to his large stature. Thankfully, he managed to get himself unstuck, but he felt Axel's aura grow darker with humiliation as several people began pointing and laughing at him.

Olivia walked over to him and sympathetically patted him on the shoulder before heading over to their own booth. Jesse surveyed their surroundings and noticed that nearly everyone from town was gathered at the competition. He felt himself starting to get nervous, but he managed to get a hold of his emotions and mustered up all the confidence he could to project outwards.

He made his way over to the booth where Axel's aura was burning with frustration and jealousy while looking over at the Ocelots' neighboring booth.

"Is that a freakin' beacon?" Jesse followed Axel's line of sight and saw that the Ocelots indeed had a beacon. "They have a freakin' beacon? A freakin' beacon!?"

"Hang on…" Olivia looked closer at the materials that the Ocelots had pulled out of the chest and Jesse felt her aura pulse rapidly with nervousness and distress as she saw what they had. "That's stained glass. They're not just building a beacon, they're building a _rainbow_ beacon!"

She looked down and muttered as her aura grew darker with resignation, "We're gonna lose."

Jesse looked over at her and tried to project what little confidence he had towards his friends.

"What're you worried about? We've got this," Jesse grinned at her and it seemed like it had worked a little bit.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out as much as he'd hoped it would, "I appreciate the enthusiasm, Jesse, but we… well, we've," she sighed. "We've got nothing."

"Hey now, you're forgetting something," Jesse gestured to Rueben, who gave a little oink, and grinned at her. "We've got a mascot."

Her aura pulse with amusement once, before it continued on its previous rhythm of nervousness mixed with a little bit of determination.

"We should probably stop staring at them," she called out to Axel who, judging by how brightly his aura was burning from jealousy, seemed like he wanted to blow up the Ocelots' build with his gaze alone.

Narrowing his eyes once more, Axel begrudgingly looked away from the other booth, but they had apparently caught someone's attention as Gill's aura shifted from focused to mocking as soon as he saw them looking.

He smirked at them and laughed mockingly to get his friends' attention.

"Look at that," Aiden and Maya turned to where Gill was pointing. "It's the Order of the Losers. Again."

Aiden smirked while Maya joined in on his laughter, "Ha! Good one Gill."

'_No, it wasn't even that good,'_ Jesse thought to himself as he glared back at them and tried not to let Aiden's malignity affect him too much.

Behind him, he could also feel his friends' auras burning brighter and pulsing faster with irritation.


	3. Aiden Is A Jerk

alternatively, the team make an... attempt

* * *

"We were just looking," Olivia informed him warily.

"Oh, there'll be _plenty_ of time for all of you to look at it once it wins and gets shown at EnderCon." Aiden's smug tone was irritating and Jesse pushed down the anger that was building up in his chest to prevent it from projecting to everyone else in the vicinity.

He could also feel Axel getting uncomfortable underneath all his anger and irritation.

Axel stepped up a couple of steps so he was standing next to Jesse and glared at Aiden, "You're being unpleasant."

Aiden ignored him in favor of glancing down at Reuben and regarding him with distaste, "Well, maybe not all of you."

He looked back up at Jesse and informed him in a complacent manner, "Endercon doesn't allow outside food or drink."

Reuben jumped back with surprise and anger at the insult while Jesse slowly blinked with surprise as he let the words register.

'_Alright, that's kinda pushing it,'_ He thought. His anger was just shimmering at the edge of the surface, almost projecting outwards. He could feel it seeping into his friends' auras. He needed to calm down before he goes out of control. The last time that happened…

"I'm talking about your pig!" Aiden's statement made him crash back to earth and he reminded himself that he needed to get rid of Aiden first before he could dissolve into his emotions.

"Shut up," Jesse told him through gritted teeth.

Unaware of Jesse's current internal struggle, Aiden narrowed his eyes at him and shot back, "What did you say?"

Thankfully, Olivia seemed to notice his distress and responded, "Jesse said, 'Shut up'," Her aura pulsed in a sudden protectiveness and she glared at the offending trio. "Do you need to hear it again?"

Aiden's aura was starting to get irritated now that they'd started talking back.

"I dunno," He challenged. "Maybe."

The six of them stared each other down for a couple more tense seconds before Lukas's voice cut into their impromptu standoff.

"Stop wasting your time Aiden," He called out, his gold-ish aura was still tinged with disappointment. "We've got work to do."

The Order of the Builders grinned triumphantly at the other group while Aiden just huffed and narrowed his eyes at them, "You're lucky I'm busy."

He turned away with the others and Jesse took that time to take care of his now quelling anger. He closed his eyes and focused on the feel of his friends' familiar auras.

Axel's fiery green aura was still burning with irritation, but it was no longer the raging fire of anger that it was before now that Jesse's anger was almost in control.

Olivia's brown-red aura was pulsing rapidly with fear and determination after their little encounter, but she was mostly relieved that Aiden had finally left them alone.

Rueben's pink aura was softly glowing with concern as he carefully paced around Jesse, seemingly forgetting about Aiden for the time being.

A fourth familiar aura was also approaching them. Jesse looked up and saw Petra looking back at him as her aura sparked with with concern.

'_How much of that did she hear?'_

He grinned at her as he managed to pull himself together once again, "Hey Petra."

He winced when his voice wavered a little bit and gave a small cough in a weak attempt to cover it up.

Axel and Olivia looked back with surprise at his declaration and their auras lit up as they saw the semi-member of their little group.

She silently raised an eyebrow at him, but returned his grin with a smile nonetheless.

"Hey Jesse," She looked to her other two friends and nodded a greeting at them, "Guys."

"Hey Petra," Olivia replied back with her own smile. "What brings you here?"

"I was passing by and I thought that I might as well drop in and say hi," Petra said as she gave a nonchalant shrug. "So how's the build going?"

"Only time will tell," Axel replied with a grin, his aura lightly burning with a newfound confidence. "But we're optimistic."

Jesse felt Petra's aura spark with amusement at his outward enthusiasm as she shifted her attention at someone else approaching behind them. He turned around to see Lukas coming forward and waving to her.

"Hey, Petra. I forgot to thank you for that Wither star the other day."

Jesse narrowed his eyes as he noted that Lukas' aura was calm, like he was greeting a friend.

She turned to Lukas and gave him a friendly smile, as her own aura sparked without a hint of animosity, "Not a problem, Lukas."

Jesse blinked. The lack of ill-will between the two was surprising, to say the least.

He remembered that she never really liked him back when they were younger, so seeing them speak on friendly terms wasn't something he was expecting to see today. But Petra had been getting better in developing her sense of people's characters recently-

(One of the advantages of having lived with an empath since age four, though it did take her a while.)

-and Jesse knew for a fact that Lukas never actually meant any harm towards them.

He never really did anything to stop Aiden from bad-mouthing them either.

"You helped these tools?" Axel's voice cut into Jesse's thoughts.

He felt a twinge of betrayal and bitterness flare up in the bulky teen that quickly left and was replaced by guilt and displeasure.

Petra turned back to face them and her aura was apologetic, but her expression barely changed.

"For the right price, I'll help anyone," She adjusted her grip on the pickax resting on her shoulder and started walking away. "If you need anything, you know where to find me."

Olivia furrowed her brows as her aura pulsed in confusion and called after her, "But none of us know whe-!"

"Yeah, will do!" Axel cut in.

Annoyed at the interruption, Olivia narrowed her eyes at him and informed him, "None of us know _where to find her._"

"Jesse does!" He looked at Jesse expectantly. "Right, Jesse?"

Now, assuming she stayed around town, Jesse could very easily find her if he wanted to. If he stretched out his abilities to his limit, he _might_ be able to locate her at any given time. Considering that this is Petra they're talking about, the possibility of her _not_ going off to some cave out of town or the Nether isn't going to be very high.

He turned to Axel to explain, but before he could open his mouth he realized that Lukas's attention was still on them.

"No hard feelings guys. If you're cool with Petra, you're cool with us." He turned to look at them fully as his aura slowly rippled with nervousness.

"So, why don't we just forget about all this and y'know," He gave a small shrug. "Make this about how cool our builds are."

Jesse regarded him with a curious gaze before he grinned and replied in a tone that could've come off as challenging.

"May the best team win."

Lukas' aura splashed with surprise at his reply.

(Jesse figured he'd probably been expecting more hostility from them after Axel's reaction to Petra's assistance.)

But the surprise was replaced by amusement and relief soon afterwards as he gave out a laugh and matched Jesse's challenging gaze with his own.

"Be careful for what you wish for," He jokingly warned.

"We'll see about that," Jesse grinned.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" He looked up to the stage to see the registration lady addressing the crowd. "Welcome to the Endercon Building Competition! As all of you most likely know, the winner of the competition gets to have their build featured at this year's Endercon!"

Jesse heard the rest of the crowd cheering and applauding at that and he could feel the nervous energy coming off of Axel and Olivia as the time for the competition drew near.

"But not only that," The lady continued once most of the cheering had quieted down. "This year, the winners of this year's competition will also meet, in person, Gabriel the Warrior!"

Jesse felt the crowd's energy collectively explode with excitement and anticipation as the lady started to list off the rules and regulations, but he was too focused on his own emotions to care about overloading at the moment and fist bumped an equally excited Axel.

The excitement didn't last long for the Order of the Builders, however.

"Ocelots!" Jesse looked towards where the Ocelots were, and looked in confusion as they started doing something with their hands out of their sight.

"Ocelots!" This time, the rivaling group turned around and Jesse could see that they were doing a handshake of some sort.

He felt Olivia's aura pulse faster as she began to panic and become nervous once again.

"A handshake?" She whispered to Axel and Jesse as the Ocelots bumped chests and cried out "Ocelots!" once more. "We don't have a handshake."

The boys + a pig turned to look at her and Jesse glanced at his fist for a moment and looked back up, hoping that he was projecting confidence and not the internal dread that was suddenly starting to form deep inside of him.

"We'll just… make one up." He stuck his fist out and grinned at them. "We'll call it… the Warrior Whip!"

His friends returned his grin and what went down next is history that Jesse will deny ever happened.

(What went down was that Axel went in to give Jesse's hand a high five just as Jesse went to fist bump Olivia's fist and caused Axel to miss Jesse's hand completely, which made Olivia withdraw her hand and caused Jesse to fist bump the air instead. Not his proudest moment.)

They all withdrew their hands after their… attempt… and glanced at each other awkwardly for a couple of seconds.

Olivia's aura pulsed several times with irritation and nervousness, "Aaaand just like that," She gave a shaky sigh and mumbled out, "I'm nervous again."

"Don't talk like that. We can do this! Just stick to the plan and everything's gonna be fine." He stuck his fist out and tried to project some enthusiasm once again. "This year, the Order of the Builders can't lose!"

His attempt at projecting worked somewhat this time, and Axel and Olivia placed their hands in the middle followed by Reuben shortly after.

Axel's aura started glowing brightly with determination as he grinned at them, "Let's do it."

The registration lady had finally finished giving the same old speech like they did every year and the team started preparing their building materials.

Jesse gave Reuben a short pat on the head and mumbled distractedly, "Don't wander off, alright boy?"

"Building starts…" Jesse held his breath and felt for his friends' auras to distract him from the growing sense of dread in his gut. "Now!"

* * *

chap 3!

if anyone happens to have any tips for improving writing... then that'd be greatly appreciated!

~peace out~


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